Sugar Sector Expansion Can Create 750,000 Rural Jobs – NSDC

Nigeria could generate as many as 750,000 indirect rural jobs from a full expansion of its sugar industry, alongside about 250,000 direct jobs if the National Sugar Master Plan II is fully implemented, the National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) has said.

NSDC executive secretary and chief executive officer, Mr Kamar Bakrin, made the projection in Abuja during a strategic engagement with the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), where both agencies reviewed policy coordination and implementation frameworks for reforms in the sugar sector.

Bakrin said Nigeria’s annual sugar import bill, estimated at more than $1 billion, represents a structural outflow that could be redirected into domestic production, industrial capacity and employment creation.

“If Nigeria succeeds in developing a proper sugar sector, one of the things we would do is convert an annual outflow of over one billion dollars into jobs, security, and industrialisation,” he said.

He described the sugar programme as an integrated agro-industrial model combining cultivation, processing, and energy generation within large-scale estates that anchor rural economies.

According to him, the sector could support about 250,000 direct jobs and an additional 750,000 indirect jobs across its value chain, with most of the activity concentrated in rural communities across at least 12 states.

Bakrin linked the expansion of agro-industrial projects to broader security outcomes, arguing that sustained rural employment could reduce young people’s exposure to violent crime and instability.

“When you have sugar projects, you don’t have unrest or any security challenge because you create so many jobs for the youths,” he said.

He added that modern sugar estates are designed to be energy self-sufficient, with the capacity to generate up to 400 megawatts of electricity, some of which could be supplied to the national grid after internal consumption.

“A sugar estate provides its own power; it does not rely on the national grid. A sugar estate consumes only about 50 per cent of the energy it produces, while the rest can be injected into the national grid,” he said.

Bakrin also said Nigeria has more than one million hectares of suitable land available for sugar cultivation, describing the sector as a potential anchor for rural industrialisation and economic diversification.

He stressed that progress under the NSMP II would depend on policy consistency, transparent incentives and stronger coordination among government institutions.

Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, said the agency would continue to support efforts aimed at reducing sugar import dependence and strengthening domestic production capacity.

He said the industry’s potential to create jobs, improve energy supply and support rural development aligns with Nigeria’s wider economic priorities.

“The potential for job creation, security, rural development, and the added value in terms of energy that we can use speaks directly to Nigeria’s economic priorities,” Adeniyi said.

Both agencies pledged deeper collaboration on import controls, quota enforcement, anti-smuggling operations and data transparency to support the implementation of Nigeria’s sugar industry reforms.